Recognition of this fact came last night with his nomination and instant installation as odds-on favourite to be named Cheque Centre PFA Scotland Player of the Year.

Yet something aches inside him when he pores over the term. An affliction known as Treble trauma.

Commons has his league championship medal and relished the adventure of another Champions League journey, yet failure to land any of the two other domestic trophies eats away.

Especially as both of the cup finals were scheduled for his home ground.

Commons isn’t suggesting his season was wrecked by setbacks in the League Cup and Scottish Cup.

But as he looks over his campaign, there is a clear sense of despair about the knockout knockbacks.

Commons said: “I suppose this has been my best season ever, certainly in a goals-to-game ratio.

“On the flip side, though, I’d have loved to have been in both cups.

“With the finals at Celtic Park, it would have been great to have been involved in that and finish the season on a high. So I’ll probably come away from this campaign with mixed emotions.

“When you play for a club such as Celtic, and especially when you have such a good team as this one, you want to win the Treble.

“That puts you among the elite as it’s only been done by two teams in the club’s long history. It’s also bordering on the near-impossible because you’re having to balance a tricky third-round tie away from home when you might have a Champions League tie the following midweek.

“You need to mix players and keep people interested in those games while still being expected to win every time you play.

“Our main aims last summer were to win the title and qualify for the Champions League. We did both and that’s great but you also want cup victories.

“Other teams have improved and become stronger. Aberdeen definitely have and given us good games home and away.

“It’s been a competitive league although our points total makes everyone else look as if they’re a million miles away.

“That’s not the full story. The remarkable run we went on earlier in the season, when we kept all those clean sheets, put a lot of distance between us and the rest. But you want more medals in the cabinet and the cups are probably the only ?negative for us this season.”

Idolised at Parkhead, happy with life away from the club and his family settled, the playmaker has much to smile about.

The Champions League has plenty to do with that and Commons admits he’s achieving things in the game he never contemplated when starting out. He said: “When I was 18 with Stoke, I never dreamed of playing in the Champions League or playing for big clubs so everything is a bonus.

“Winning cups, winning titles, playing in Europe. It’s all a bonus for me.

“The better a player you become, the more ambitious you become.

“First, you’re trying to make a living out the game but if you’re exceptionally talented, you can think about the Champions League and World Cup.”

Commons has two of his title-winning colleagues in the Player of the Year mix with him, as Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster joined Kilmarnock’s Kris Boyd on the shortlist. It’s a far cry from a year ago when boss Neil Lennon was raging that none of his stars, who had also won the title, Scottish Cup and reached last 16 of the Champions League, got a mention for the award.

Commons insists he’s relished the campaign and the chance to make himself the main candidate for the accolade.

He said: “I went to the event last year oblivious to the fact we didn’t have any nominees.

“Victor Wanyama was up for Young Player so we were there to support him.

“I’ve never played in such an advanced position before. For most of this season we’ve played with just one striker and I’ve been given licence to get in the box. I’ve scored a lot more goals from 12-yard range than I’ve been used to. It’s all been down to circumstances.

“If Gary Hooper had stayed, I’d probably have been on the wing. That’s more of a natural role for me but, since Leigh Griffiths came in, we’ve tried to play with three really attacking players and score as many goals as we can.

“I voted for Kris Boyd and for Stevie May as Young Player. It’s hard for us to judge though.

“You look at the top scorers but there aren’t many teams who enjoy much possession against us as we usually have 65-70 per cent of it.

“That makes it hard for opposing players to show what they’re capable of and hard for us to pick out someone who’s been outstanding.”